Intensity of specialization can lead to burnout

Club sports bring increased competition, regimentation

Hindsight is 20/20, as the saying goes, but Daniel Blaney didn’t need the passing of time to see the possibility of regret. When the 17-year-old quit his FC Dallas club team in May, he knew it might be a mistake.

But Blaney, who had played high-level club soccer since the third grade, did it anyway. Blaney decided that during his upcoming senior year at Flower Mound Marcus, he would only play for the high school team.

And he immediately felt relief.

“After playing hundreds, or I guess thousands, of soccer games, I just felt like I really needed a break,” Blaney said. “Burnout is definitely the word I would use.”

It’s a word that is used more as athletes become increasingly specialized, and intensely competitive, at younger ages. There isn’t a good source for the number of kids who suffer from sports burnout, but warnings about it have been around for a long time.

When Matt Hansen moved his son from recreational baseball to select baseball nine years ago, he heard a lot about it.

Avoiding Burnout

In a position statement earlier this year, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine defined burnout as the “result of a chronic stress that causes a young athlete to cease participation in a previously enjoyable activity.”

The AMSSM included these recommendations for decreasing the chance of burnout and injury from early-age sports specialization:

Limit weekly and yearly competition in a particular sport as well as sport-specific training.

Emphasize skill development more than competition and winning.

Closely monitor training workload during the adolescent growth spurt, when injury risk seems to be greater.

With the possible exception of early entry sports such as gymnastics, figure skating, and swimming and diving, sport diversification should be encouraged at younger ages.

Mitchell Hansen, now an 18-year-old senior at Plano, didn’t get burned out. The star outfielder is orally committed to Stanford and this month will play in All-American games in San Diego and Chicago before competing at the USA Baseball 18U National Team trials in Houston.

Like a job

Hansen is one of many athletes who have become elite players with the help of club teams. In sports such as baseball, softball, soccer and volleyball, nearly all of the players on the best high school teams also play for club teams. The top college programs also do most of their recruiting through club competition because the tournaments and showcases allow them to see a huge number of recruits at one location.

But years of playing for a high-level club team can change how an athlete feels about a sport. Blaney, who played for eight years for the Dallas Texans and then a year with the FC Dallas 97 Blue team, has many great memories of club soccer, including playing in the prestigious Dallas Cup.

But eventually, soccer wasn’t a game anymore. Blaney once looked forward to every practice and game, he said, but it became like a job.

“I’m not so sure if I want to play in college now,” he said, “and I didn’t want my parents to pay money if it wasn’t something I was going to do at the next level.”

Former Forney softball player Krista Williams, an all-district catcher for four straight seasons, had a chance to play at the next level but turned down a scholarship to McNeese State. After years of high-level softball, including long practices and once playing 10 games in a weekend, the 2013 Forney graduate had lost her love for the game.

Her story isn’t typical. But it isn’t rare, either.

Former Forney softball player Krista Williams turned down a scholarship to McNeese State after years of high-level softball. (Thao Nguyen/Special Contributor)

“We’ve had some kids who play right up to college and then say ‘I’ve had enough,’” said Kevin Shelton, who manages the Texas Glory select softball team that has produced players such as U.S. national team member Taylor Hoagland (of Flower Mound) and 2011 Big 12 Player of the Year Amy Hooks (of North Mesquite). “There are kids like that every season. They just decide to hang ’em up.”

Erin McClanahan, coach of the 2013 4A state finalist Prosper volleyball team and assistant coaching director for the Excel Volleyball Club, said that simply trying to get on a top club volleyball team can be exhausting for a player. In the fall, a girl might play five days a week with her high school team and then spend Saturdays and Sundays at clinics to prepare for a club tryout.

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“I see a lot of burnout,” she said.“I see girls that have played forever and they’re deciding their junior and senior years that they’re not going to play in college.”

Matt Wood played a different sport, soccer, and at a different time — the late ’90s. But he experienced a similar burnout when he was a teenager in Plano and played for Andromeda Soccer Club. Wood competed in club soccer for eight years, but a month before the start of his senior year at Plano, he quit.

His decision came only a month after his parents had paid club dues for another year. But Wood’s burnout was so intense that he agreed to get a job to repay his parents.

Wood was tired of long practices, traveling to tournaments and missing out on other activities in high school. He still played for the high school team his senior year, and was a key part of Plano’s 5A state champion in 2000. But he decided he didn’t want to play soccer in college.

“I couldn’t imagine playing another four years and having that much regiment to my life,” Wood said. “I felt like eight years of competitive soccer was enough for me to be in that world.”

Erin McClanahan, Prosper volleyball coach and assistant coaching director of the Excel Volleyball Club, says she sees a lot of burnout and that just trying to get on a top club volleyball team can be exhausting. (Mike Stone/Special Contributor)

Some kids have been with club teams for longer than eight years by the time they are finishing up high school. Many clubs have teams with 8-year-olds and some even younger.

Kids that young who play for competitive clubs are at increased risk of burnout, said John Engh, the chief operating officer of the National Alliance for Youth Sports. Engh also pointed out a research brief by the University of Florida Sport Policy and Research Collaborative that highlighted the dangers of early sports specialization.

The 2013 research brief, which drew from the findings of more than 50 research papers and books, found that sports specialization for kids ages 6 to 12 led to increased burnout and higher rates of injury than for kids who played multiple sports.

The research collaborative also concluded that, for sports other than gymnastics and figure skating, the short-term edge that early specialization provides has dissipated by the time athletes are seeking college scholarships and have aspirations of a professional career.

If a parent wants his or her kid to be the best player on a team of 8-year-olds, sports specialization can help achieve that goal.

“But there are no benefits beyond that,” Engh said.

Variety helps

Many athletes on club teams specialize early, but others still play multiple sports. Shelton said he encourages Texas Glory softball players to compete in several sports through middle school.

“I want balance in life,” he said. “I don’t want it to be all softball.”

Club Commitment

The amount of time for practice and games differs from club to club — and sport to sport. But below are examples from prominent clubs in the Dallas area.

Dallas Tigers Baseball: For players in the 14-and-under age group during the spring season, three two-hour practices per week, usually one midweek, one Saturday, one Sunday. No weekend practices when a tournament is played. Typically two tournaments per month. Most 14-and-under teams do not play as much (or at all) in the fall. Teams with ages 15 and up play in the fall.

Texas Advantage Volleyball: For ages 12 and older, practices run from January to April (until June for elite team). Two two-hour practices per week, plus a weekly one-hour performance training session. Two to three weekend tournaments per month.

Andromeda FC Soccer: For ages 11 and older on competitive boys and girls teams, season is yearlong (breaks dependent on team). Two 90-minute practices per week, assorted games, three to six tournaments per year. Players who are part of U.S. Soccer Federation academy teams practice a minimum of four times per week and play approximately 30 league games per year.

Texas Glory Softball: For players not yet in high school, the season is February-November with two practices per week, each about 2½ to 3 hours. Typically, two or three tournaments per month, with one practice dropped on weeks of tournaments. For high school players: One weekly practice (2½-3 hours) in the fall and the team plays six to seven tournaments from Sept. to November. After high school season ends in May, players return to club to prepare for national tournaments in the summer.

Tommy Hernandez, founder of the Dallas Tigers baseball club that boasts of alumni such as Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Braves catcher Evan Gattis and Rangers pitcher Shawn Tolleson, also wants his players to compete in other sports. It helps decrease the chance of burnout, he said, and it makes them better baseball players.

“If they play football, they’re going to get tougher. If they play basketball or soccer, they’re going to develop really good agility and footwork,” Hernandez said. “That’ll carry over to the baseball diamond.”

Parents play a key role in preventing the burnout. When a child is 10 years old or younger, Engh said, being the best player on a team shouldn’t matter. For children that age, fun needs to be emphasized to keep their interest.

But parents are competitive.

“Parents get so out of whack with their kids’ activities,” Engh said, “that they just can’t step back and see what’s going on and burnout becomes a big factor.”

Hernandez, whose Tigers club has more than 300 participants, talked about that recently with parents of players on one of the teams of 12-year-olds. Hernandez told the parents they needed to stop yelling and putting pressure on the players.

“Five years from now, when their kid quits baseball, they’re going to come back and say I wish I had listened to you,” he said.

Jon Vaughn’s son never played baseball for the Dallas Tigers, but he wishes he could’ve done things differently. When Garrison Vaughn was 8 years old, he began playing for the Central Texas Raiders, a club team based in Georgetown, near the Vaughn family’s home at the time.

For three years, Garrison’s team practiced two or three times per week, and during the spring, traveled two or three times a month to tournaments in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Florida. Four games in one day wasn’t uncommon.

Jon Vaughn said over the course of three years, the family probably spent $20,000 for travel, equipment, uniforms and team dues. Vaughn was so caught up in it that he kept his own stats to see where Garrison ranked on the team.

“It gets to be an addiction for the parents,” Jon Vaughn said.

And then it ended abruptly in the summer of 2011, when Vaughn asked 11-year-old Garrison if he was ready for fall ball.

“His mouth said yes,” Vaughn said, “but his eyes said no.”

Garrison Vaughn, who is now a freshman at Belton and plans to play for the football team, told his dad he was tired of the practices, the games and the travel.

Is your child suffering burnout?

Alan Smith, Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Kinesiology at Michigan State University and the president of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, offers three potential indicators that an athlete is at risk, or suffering, from burnout.

Emotional and Physical Exhaustion: This might be the easiest element to discover, Smith said. The markers are “kind of obvious: they would be excessively tired, emotionally drained or unable to do stuff because they are so fatigued.”

Reduced Sense of Accomplishment: “You don’t feel like you are achieving anything, and feel like you are performing below your own standards,” Smith said. Consistently negative self-criticism is also a flag.

Sport devaluation: “It’s reduced interest, where they could start to question the value of the sport,” Smith said. “They might even be resentful that they have to train instead of doing other things.” — Corbett Smith